Belfast born Matthew Smyth graduated in 2020 with a First Class Honours Degree in Fine art from De Montfort University in Leicester.

While still an undergraduate he featured in the ArtisAnn Gallery Emerging Artists Show and had an artwork purchased for the permanent Government Collection of the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

The paintings in this exhibition show his portrayal of the intimacies of human form.

Matthew says

“Within each painting I experiment with colour, scale, texture, light and setting to change the atmospheric quality and emotional values of the artwork.

My main subject matter is the figure. I depict human form in my paintings because I think that the expressions through their body, face and movements can subtly display powerful and relatable emotions.

Using the language of paint, I aim to create emotion and narrative within my artwork that brings the viewer into a very personal and closed off space.”

During his time at University Matthew studied both realistic and expressionistic painting techniques, working to combine the processes to create his own unique style of oil painting. He took part in multiple exhibitions in Leicester showing artwork ranging from expressionistic landscapes to finely painted portraits.

Using his own photography references Matthew now aims to create narrative driven paintings using expressions of human form and bold mark marking techniques.

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